We Wander — Mark & Meghan’s World Travels

The hardest thing about following the Vancouver 2010 Olympics (besides the fact that hardly anyone here ever thinks about snow) is the 15 hour time difference. We did manage to find a bar called Choppers here on Koh Tao that was playing Olympic coverage on a Hong Kong feed of ESPN, and we successfully watched Canada beat Slovakia in men’s hockey the other day.

We were determined to watch the gold medal game as well, except that the time difference meant that Canada would face the USA at 3:15 a.m. local time. Unfortunately, our gecko-inhabited beach hut is sans-satellite TV, so we asked Choppers bar if they might consider keeping some unusual hours for the sake of us obsessive hockey fans. It seems that enough people must have asked the same thing, because sure enough, by mid-afternoon the day before, the big game was written on the chalkboard outside: “Olympic Hockey, Gold Medal Game, Live at 3:00 a.m.”

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After successfully reuniting with Mike and Sarah in Bangkok, we headed east by bus. Our destination: Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor in Cambodia. It was a long day of bus travel, with a slow border crossing in the middle of it, but we arrived in Siem Reap in one piece and early enough to plan our expedition to the temples for the following day. The idea was to leave at 5:00am by tuk-tuk in order to be at the temples for sunrise. We were in for a day of heat, sweat, and ancient ruins. This was a destination that we’d been looking forward to for some time, and we’d finally arrived. We went to sleep with excited minds.

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Our last destination in Laos was the capital, Vientiane, where we were meeting our friend Rachel for a short visit. We took the bus from Vang Vieng (which left on Laos time, meaning about an hour late) and arrived in the city at dusk. Vientiane is a small capital, with a population of just over 200,000 people. Still, it felt pretty big after some of the smaller places we’d been recently.

We hopped in a tuk-tuk from the bus station and went in search of Rachel’s guesthouse. When we found it, she was waiting for us with refreshingly cold Beer Lao at the ready. It was so great to see a friendly face from back home! We only had one day to hang out before Rachel had to carry on to Bangladesh, so we made the most of it.

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One of the things that makes Vang Vieng a destination for so many travelers (besides tubing — more on that later) is the landscape that surrounds it. In nearly every direction, huge limestone karsts, or cliffs, soar upwards in sheer masses. And as it that weren’t enough on its own, the karsts are full of caves and clear, cool springs. We had to get up close, so we rented a motorbike in Vang Vieng and headed west on a bumpy gravel road that stretched towards the karsts through the rural countryside.

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“We tend to seek happiness, when happiness is actually a choice.”

~ As read on a menu in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a city tucked in between the Mekong River and the Nam Khan river, surrounded by forested mountains and full of temples. Our first morning there, we woke up feeling fresh and recovered from our two day boat journey, and eased ourselves out into the city. This was our first true destination in Laos, and we were excited.

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200 days of traveling have come and gone! Here’s the latest numbers:

- 40095 kilometers traveled, over land and sea (Equal to just over once around the equator!)

- 971 hours spent in transit

- Countries visited: 21

- Distance breakdown: 56% ship, 30% train, 7% bus, 6% car, <1% other

- Time breakdown: 67% ship, 17% train, 7% bus, 5% car, 3% foot, 1% other

More than once around the equator! And we broke the equatorial milestone on the 200th day, with a motorbike tour around Vang Vieng. How cool is that.

Check out the breadcrumb for the latest routes.

After a marathon, week-long journey north from Sumatra, we finally arrived at the Laos border in Northern Thailand. We covered almost 3000 kilometers in just over 7 days, on a bee-line up through Malaysia and Thailand. Our goal: to reach the border and have about 10 days to wander south through Laos towards the capital, Vientiane, where we’ll be meeting our friend Rachel. We crossed the border from Chiang Khong, Thailand, to Huay Xai, Laos, and were all set to begin an exciting new leg of our journey.

Our first destination in Laos was Luang Prabang, an ancient city built on the Mekong River, and a Unesco World Heritage site. We opted for the true “slow travel” option to get there: a two day boat trip from Huay Xai down the Mekong River. We were excited and happy to slow our pace down a bit, after the string of bus and train trips we’d recently been on.

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One of the most essential pieces of gear that any traveler must carry with them is a decent pair of sunglasses. Having the right pair provides you with much more than simply an elevated “cool” factor — good sunglasses protect your eyes from sun, wind, sand and dust while you explore beaches, mountain tops, glaciers, jungles, and more. The right pair should be comfortable, lightweight and durable. They should be as functional on a mountain bike as they are on a beach. It’s a lot to ask from a single pair.

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Three nights ago we left the peace and quiet of Lake Toba to head for Medan, a large city on the northeast coast of Sumatra. The plan: to spend one night in Medan recovering from the 5 hour bus ride (this one had absolutely no leg room, a nightmare for me especially) and then to catch the fast ferry to Penang, Malaysia on Sunday morning. Our time in Indonesia was nearly up, and we were feeling ready to leave.

As it turns out, Indonesia wasn’t quite finished with us. We discovered upon arrival in Medan that the ferry only left on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. A warning to other travelers — the Lonely Planet guide is wrong on this one, at least the 2008 copy we have is. They were also wrong about the price. When we did buy our tickets they ended up costing nearly twice what the book said. I guess it’s important to learn early on not to trust the guidebooks implicitly. We’re usually much better at avoiding things like that, but we missed this one. As a result, we suddenly had three days to spend in Medan.

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